EasyJet refusing to refund

Sunnie15

I booked flights to Lanzarote for January this year before lockdown mark 1. In December EasyJet moved my outward flight from Luton to Gatwick and brought it forward 7 hours. The return flight remained into Luton making it pretty impossible to use the booking. Just prior to lockdown 3 I asked for a refund as there was no way we could use the booking given the change in one of the airports. I received a refund for £3 and queried it. I said that if this was the only refund I was entitled to them could I have a voucher instead. EasyJet took that to mean that I wanted a voucher and without any explanation of the £3 issued a voucher.  They are refusing a refund of my full booking saying I accepted a voucher which I never have. It turns out the £3 was refund on a seat booking but that was never explained until well after the voucher was issued. EasyJet’s attitude is that I should consider myself lucky to have a voucher as the outward flight operated. Quite how I was expected to get to Gatwick in a lockdown and fly to a country I could not enter is still beyond me.  The return flight was cancelled by EasyJet. EasyJet are flatly refusing to budge. We’re only talking about £300 but I’ve got more flights booked for early March which have already been rebooked once and it’s starting to get silly. How many EasyJet vouchers does a person need!
 

bagand96

You were entitled to a refund as soon as they moved your outward flight.  Generally once you have accepted a voucher instead then an airline won't take the voucher back in exchange for cash.  It looks like your request was mis-understood and led to a voucher being issued.

Sunnie15

bagand96 said:

You were entitled to a refund as soon as they moved your outward flight.  Generally once you have accepted a voucher instead then an airline won't take the voucher back in exchange for cash.  It looks like your request was mis-understood and led to a voucher being issued.

I have sent EasyJet proof that my first contact with them about this booking was a refund request but they refuse to accept it. I emailed them back rejecting the voucher and telling them I had asked for a refund in the first instance. 

Thrugelmir

Sunnie15 said:

 EasyJet’s attitude is that I should consider myself lucky to have a voucher as the outward flight operated. Quite how I was expected to get to Gatwick in a lockdown and fly to a country I could not enter is still beyond me.
 

Not the responsibility of the airline as to whether a passenger can enter the destination country. (This will form part of the contract you entered into). The airline provides a service, the service operated. The airline incurred all it's normal operational costs in doing so. 

CKhalvashi

However you then changed this request to a voucher. Easyjet have therefore done as you asked them.

Why would you be unable to use one airport outbound and another inbound? I do this quite frequently (at least pre-Covid) including often mixing and matching airlines (if needing Monday/Friday for example and one airline operates on a Monday, another on a Friday), via a different point if necessary. An example of this last year would be Southend-Vilnius with Wizz, then Vilnius-Minsk-Gatwick with Belavia, where a one-way Vilnius-Gatwick flight via Minsk with a 9 day stopover was cheaper than a self-connection through Vilnius/Warsaw/Kyiv etc on the return.

You should have asked for an explanation of the £3 refund before deciding how to proceed. A change of departure airport and that level of time change would ordinarily give a right to a refund under EC261/2004, so the onus was on you to point this out to Easyjet.

Immigration requirements are your problem, not those of Easyjet. Easyjet don't make immigration policy and it's your responsibility to ensure that you can enter a country.

Sunnie15

I did ask EasyJet for an explanation of the refund but they didn’t give one for 2 weeks. But they were pretty quick to give a voucher and are denying ever receiving the original refund request even though I have sent a PDF of their response to it. 

As for,the change in airports, it would have meant taxis both ways Last time I had a taxi to LGW it was £160 each way. It’s about £70 to LTN. Public transport is difficult where we live even without COVID. For a 7.30am departure from LGW it would have meant an overnight hotel stay plus an extra night in kennels for dog. I know that EasyJet couldn’t give a toss about that. I have already pointed out to them that they cancelled my original flight and moved to another one with a completely different flight no.  but their view is tough, it flew, you should have been on it. 

joncombe

Take it to your credit card company. They did similar to me, moved a booking due to depart from Luton to Gatwick, a day later. A different flight number, different time. EasyJet refused a refund claiming that I wasn't entitled to a refund because they gave me greater than 2 weeks notice and it's a departure from the same "city". There was no option to apply for a refund when viewing the booking or voucher on the website. I stated you could only do this over the telephone and Easyjet never answered the phone. 

I did find a generic "refund request" form and filled it in, providing the booking details, but they did not respond until after the time I was due to travel then told me I wasn't entitled to a refund because the flight still ran (the one I booked didn't, the one I was moved to didn't) and ignored all replies. I did a charge back with they objected to and sent the credit card company of the details from the flight booking system showing that I did not turn up to the flight but it still ran so it's not their problem. The booking was the "new" flight from Gatwick but there was also a reference to the originally booked flight. They also stated I had not made any attempt to contact them before the flight departed (lies).

Anyway I submitted all the information I had (the original flight booking email, telephone logs showing I called them many times, emails sent to them etc). And the credit card company agreed and upheld the refund. They also told me that EasyJet were "trying it on".
So I'm afraid that's the best suggestion I can give you. Note that the CAA define a flight as being cancelled if the flight no has changed. SO assuming that was the case for you (and I'm sure it was), you ARE entitled to a refund - but don't expect EasyJet to make it easy.

Sunnie15

Thanks Jon Combe. That is really helpful. Same city or not. LTN and LGW are 70 miles apart!  EasyJet have done it again with flights in May 2021 and pulled our return flight forward 24 hours which means we are due to fly back on the evening of a wedding we are going to (hopefully) so again unusable flight for us. 

Penelopa.Pitstop

CKhalvashi said:

Why would you be unable to use one airport outbound and another inbound? I do this quite frequently.

Good for your, but if someone books Luton, they probably live somewhere near it and don't want to fly to Gatwick. Also, if you drive to airport, how are you supposed to get back if your car is in Luton and you fly to Gatwick? Who would want to waste hours on public transport?

Thrugelmir

Penelopa.Pitstop said:

CKhalvashi said:

Why would you be unable to use one airport outbound and another inbound? I do this quite frequently.

Good for your, but if someone books Luton, they probably live somewhere near it and don't want to fly to Gatwick. Also, if you drive to airport, how are you supposed to get back if you're car is in Luton and you fly to Gatwick? Who would want to waste hours on public transport?

In normal times there's a direct coach service between the two airports.  Only 70 miles apart. 

Westin

Regardless now of the airport of departure, the OP it seems accepted the change.   At the time they could have declined and opted for a refund but it seems confusion occurred, the change of departure point accepted and now some time after wishing to opt for a refund instead of a travel waiver credit.   I don't think EasyJet will convert an accepted credit for a cash refund.